E99 
08 C5 
















.^^ .;^^. %/ ^^--' 















o. 

















' ,0 



-..'^^T// -o,--^'/ \-^-\/ 
%.A^ :S^iK^ ^Z :^fe\ \,^^ #■■- 

o V 







V'^4^ 






__ . C • ^.se^'^x.,."' _ o 






>^^:^ y^o . 



s 



i 



.^^ 



'''^ 



,h 



€5- 



RSnEOnrSTRAIffGS 



THE TREATY 



Great and Little Osage Indians, 



GROSS INJUSTICE DONE THE SETTLER. 



THE SCHOOL FUND DESPOILED, 

AND 

LAND MONOPOLY CREATED. 



WASHINGTON : 

GIBSON BROTHERS, PRINTERS. 

1868. 



>p 



o^ 



?? 



Zk- 



RKMOMSTRAWCIS. 



Washington, June 24, 1868. 
To the Senate of the United States: 

I have the honor to respectfiill_y suhuiit to the consideration 
of Senators the following remonstrance with regard to a treaty 
now pending hefore your honorable body, the ratification of 
which in its present form will most injuriously affect the 
present interests and future welfare of the State of Kansas, 
which I have in part the honor to represent in this, the For- 
tieth Congress of the United States. I ask your respectful 
consideration of the same ; 

It appears that on the ^Ttb day of May last a treaty was 
concluded between the United States and certain Indians, 
known as the Great and Little Osages^ tor the cession on 
their part of the reservation occupied by them, in return for 
certain considerations hereinafter to be named. I desire to 
call your attention to the character of that treaty, the injus- 
tice done alike to the Indians, to the General Government, 
and especially to the people of the State of Kansas, by the 
terms under which a very valuable tract of country is pro- 
posed to be ceded to private individuals, without due regard 
to, and in fact to the positive detriment of, all public interests 
related thereto. 

The reservation disposed of by the terms of this objection- 
able instrument, is situated within the State of Kansas, im- 
mediately contiguous to the northern boundary of the Indian 
Territory, and comprises eight million acres of the best agri- 
cultural and grazing lands of that State, running from east to 
west about two hundred and fifty (250) miles, and from north 
to south fifty (50) miles. It comprises a territory nearly 
twice as large as the State of Massachusetts, and witliin a 



fractiou of the area of that State, Connecticut, and Delaware 
combined. If absorbed into the public domain, and placed 
under the operations of the homestead laws, it would give to 
the farmers of this land fifty thousand homesteads of one 
HUNDRED AND SIXTY (160) ACRES EACH, which at the Ordinary 
average of five persons in each family would sustain a popu- 
lation of two HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND (250,000) pcrsOUS. 

Placed under the operation of the preemption laws of the 
United States and opened to such settlement, it would pro- 
duce to the United States Treasury, and for the benefit of the 
Indians, the sum of twelve million dollars, ($12,000,000.) 
being at the fixed rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents 
($1.25) per acre. 

By the terms of the pending tieat}', tliis vast tract of 
valuable land is to be ceded by the Indians, (for whose re- 
moval elsewhere provision is made,) not to the United States, 
in trust for them, but to a railroad corporation situated in 
part in the aforesaid State, and known as the Leavenworth, 
Lawrence, and Galveston Railroad Company. The enter- 
prise it represents is a favorite one in the State, and one of 
great importance to the people of the vast interior of this 
continent. Therefore^ a great disposition exists to look 
indulgently on all propositions which tend to insure the 
success of this proposed road ; but the advantages accruing 
to it by the pending treaty are so flagrantly unjust and ruin- 
ous to the best interests of the community affected, as to 
have aroused great anxiety and indignation among all classes 
of my constituency. 

The treaty proposes to give to this cor[ioration, at an aver- 
age rate of nineteen cents per acre, the entire eight million 
acres of land referred to. The total price is one million, 
six hundred thousand dollars, ($1,000,000,) of which 
amount one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) is to be 
paid within three months from the ratification of said treaty, 
and the remainder in equal yearly installments, with interest 
at the rate of five per cent, per annum ; being a period of 
fifteen years for the completion of said payments. To secure 
the payment of these sums, the treaty stipulates only for the 



bonds ot" the corporation, and the Indians, of whom the 
Government of the United States is the guardian, are left 
without even the security of a mortgage upon the projected 
road. 

In addition to the very remarkable liberality of these 
terms, the treaty makes no ])rovisions for securing to the 
settlers now located on the "Diminished Reserve" (which 
they have occupied by the consent of the Indians) the 
lands they are cultivating ; nor does it do more than make 
a pretence of protecting a large body of settlers now on 
what are known as the " Osage Trust Lands." These 
comprise nearly one-half and the best portion of the entire 
reservation, amounting in all to three million two hundred 
thousand (3,20U,000) acres, A large portion of this tract 
is now occupied. In the remarkable treaty now before you 
will 1)6 found a provision allowing every settler occupying a 
" square quarter section " of land to preempt the same at 
one dollar and twenty-five cents ($1.25) per acre. As these 
lands have been but very recently surveyed, so that " metes 
and bounds " could not be legally known, it follows that but 
very few of those settled were on " square quarter sections " 
of land at the time this treaty was made. Thus, by the 
insertion of so very palpable a dodge as this provision, sev- 
eral thousand settlers are Jeft, wnth their families, to the 
mercy of this railroad corporation. That I may not be con- 
sidered to have misrepresented, I insert Article Four of the 
pending treaty, in which said condition is embodied : 

" All persons being heads of families and citizens of the 
United States, or members of any tribe at peace with the 
United States, who have settled on the strip north of the 
present Osage reservation known as the " trust lands," and 
are at the date of the signing hereof residing thereon as 
hone fide settlers, shall have the privilege at any time within 
one year from the date of the ratification of this treaty, of 
})urchasing from the United States a quarter section, at $1.25 
per acre, to be selected in one body according to legal divis- 
ions, and to include, as far as practicable, the improvements 
of each settler : Provided, hotuevei', That said quarter section 
shall not consist of, or he made up from, parts of different 
quarter sections. ' ' 



6 

On tlie trust lands aforesaid there are at least eighteen 
THOUSAND (18,000) homesteads of one hundred and sixty (160) 
acres each. Every acre is fertile, ready for occupation, well 
watered, with abundance of jtirnber nnd stone, and possess- 
ing a warm and healthy climate. 

Under the operation of heneticent laws of the United State.'S, 
the State of Kansas is entitled, by the terras of the act of 
admission, to the sixteenth (16th) and thirty-sixth (36th) 
sections of public lands for the benefit of the coraliion schools 
of the State. If the land is not to he had in ])lace, an equiv- 
alent is to be rendered. 

Great injustice has already been done the State by the 
operation of previous Indian treaties, which have ceded to 
private individuals or corpoi'ations large bodies of land for- 
merly held by Indian tribes, and by them disposed of, under 
direction of the Indian Bureau and with the consent of the 
treaty-making power, in the manner indicated. Since 1859 
there has thus passed into the hands of the classes before 
indicated Indian lands to the amount of one million, three 

HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY- 
ONE (1,357,521) acres, out of which not a section has been 
reserved for school purposes, and for the loss of which no 
equivalent has been rendered the State or the cause of edu- 
cation therein. By the treaties referred to, the value of 

SEVENTY-SIX THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY (76,160) acreS 

of the most valuable lands in the State have been subtracted 
from its school funds. 

To this injustice it is now projjosed to add a grosser and 
greater one. Siiould the treaty with the Osages be ratified 
in its present form, the schools in the State of Kansas will 
be the loser of six hundred and ninety-four (694) sections, 

or FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE THCUSAND, ONE HUNDRED AND 

SIXTY (445,160) acres of land. Should the objectionable 
treaty be ratified, it involves (with the amount previously 
named) a loss to the schools of the State of five hundred 

AND TWENTY-ONE THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY ACRES, 

which, reasonably well managed, could be made to return a 
money value of three dollars (,^3) an acre — being a total of 



ONE MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE THOUSAND, NINE HUN- 
DRED AND SIXTY DOLLARS, ($1,561,960.) The amount involved 
for our common schools by this treaty, at the same average 
price per acre, would alone amount to one million, three 

HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHTY 
DOLLARS, ($1,335,480.) 

It is not therefore surprising that the State of Kansas, 
alike through its officers, its press and people, should unite 
in condemning a treaty so unjust and a bargain so mani- 
festly dishonest as that included in the provisions of which, 
in their behalf, as a Representative of the State, I now com- 
plain, and against which the most earnest protest is hereby 
entered. In corroboration of the allegations made herein, 
I present to your consideration the protest of the State offi- 
cers, already formally submitted to your honorable body : 

Executive Department, 
ToPEKA, Kansas, June 9, 1868. 

To the Senate of the United States : 

" The undersigned, executiveofficersof the State of Kansas, 
most respectfully memorialize your honorable body against 
the ratification of the treaty recently concluded with the 
Osage Indians, whereby they agree to cede the lands now 
held by them in this State to the Leavenworth, Lawrence, 
and Galveston Railroad Company, on the following grounds, 
to wit : 

"1. That the Usages were induced to conclude the treaty 
by threats and false representations, whereby they Avere made 
to believe that it was the design of the State authorities to 
make war upon them, and either kill them or drive them 
from their reservation, 

"2. That the price agreed to be paid is grossly inadequate 
to the value of the lands ; that a much larger price was 
offered ; that the payments are extended over a long series 
of years ; and that the final consummation of the treaty 
would be a flagrant robbery of the Indians. 

" 3. That no provision is made in the treaty for the benefit 
of schools, or in the interest of the settlers who have gone 
upon the lands and made improvements, but that both these 
interests are remitted to the tender mercies of speculators and 
monopolists. 

" 4. That the lands thus ceded comprise nearly one-fifth 
of the area of the entire State, the whole of which will be 



8 

withheld from settlement and development, except upon 
such terms as the monopolists may dictate. 

" 5. Tliat the success of this fraud will tend to retard 
immigration, thus militating against the best interests of 
the State, as well as of the country at large, 

" 6. Tiiat the persons who will derive the chief benefits of 
this treaty are strangers to the State, and in no wise identi- 
fied with its interests. 

" "7. That they believe the whole system of permitting or 
encouraging the Indians to cede to private corporations is 
pernicious ; that in extinguishing Indian titles, the Govern- 
ment should become the purchaser, permitting the settlers 
to procure titles at the minimum rate, withdrawing from sale 
wlien the aggregate of the purchase money shall have been 
realized, and then allowing the preemption and homestead 
laws to operate as in other cases. 

For these and other reasons which might be enumerated, 
the undersigned respectfully request the Senate to negative 
the treaty recently concluded with the Osages, and which 
has been or will bo submitted for their consideration. 

S. J. CRAWFORD, 

Governor. 
R. A. BARKER, 

'Secretary of State. 
*J. R. SWALLOW, 

Auditor of State. 
M. ANDERSON, 

State Treasurer. 
GEORGE H. HOYT, 

Attorney General. 
P. McVICAR, 
Superintendent Public Instruction." 

In proof of the character of the transactions by which 
this treaty was obtained, I call your attention to the fact 
that no regard was paid to the respectful but urgent appeal 
of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the 
Rev. P. McVicar, who personally appeared before the Com- 
mission and urged that due regard be had to the rights of 
the State with relation to school lands. This was done, too, 
iu the face of a favorable proposition from another corpo- 
ration. 

There is manifest injustice in placing this or any similar 
body of valuable lands, within the borders of a State, under 



9 

the control of a private corporation. It is especially so in 
this case, as a glance at the circumstances of this proposed 
road will show. All that the Leavenworth, Lawrence, and 
Galveston Railroad Company propose to build within the 
State of Kansas is one hundred and fiity (150) miles, the 
cost of which at the liberal rate of twenty-five tliousand 
dollars ($25,000) per mile, would amount to three million, 
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, (|3, 750, 000.) 
Towards this sum they have received the following valuable 
franchises : 

From the General Government, five hundred thousand 
(500,000) acres of land situated along the line of said road, 
which, at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents (.$1.50) per 
acre, is now worth seven liundred and fifty thousand dollars, 
(1750,000.) 

From the IState, by action of its Legislature, this corpora- 
tion has received one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
(125,000) acres of land, worth three dollars ($3) per acre ; 
in all three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, 
($375,000.) 

From difi:erent counties through which it passes, the road 
receives bonds to the value of nine hundred tliousand dol- 
lars, ($900,000.) 

These make an aggregate uf franchises wortii two million, 
twenty-five thousand dollars, ($2,025,000.) 

Should the treaty be ratified, they will receive, in addition, 
lands worth at the least twelve million dollars, ($12,000,000,) 
making them a profit of ten million, two hundred and sev- 
enty-five thousand dollars, ($10,275,000.) 

In behalf of the State of Kansas, in behalf of the Indians 
themselves, protection to whom against speculation and pec- 
ulation like this the Congress of the United States is bound 
to accord, in behalf of the laboring millions of the Onion 
whose interests are involved, as Avell as in belialf of the 
educational and material interests of my State, so deeply 
affected thereby, I most urgently and respectfully ask Sena- 
tors not to ratify an instrument like this, and tlius at once 



10 

crush a monopoly so threatening as its provisions would 
create. 

I res})ectt'ully submit to [Senators tliat tlie Indians them- 
selves would much rather sell their lands to the General 
Government, who is the proper custodian thereof, both for 
the Indians' benefit and that of its own citizens. 

But if this land is to be used for the purposes of internal 
improvement, I respectfully urge upon your consideration 
the justice of allowing the State of Kansas to become the 
purchaser, to be divided equally among many important 
works of internal improvement, situated within the State. 

The proposition to amend the treaty by providing for 
appraisers to appraise the land at the average price of one 
dollar and twenty-five cents ($1.25) per acre, is no practical 
relief from the monopoly and injustice against which I 
remonstrate in behalf of the people of Kansas. Experience 
has proved that the policy of sending out commissioners of 
this kind is of doubtful propriety, and is a fruitful source of 
peculation and fraud. The most valuable portion of this 
laud is situated east of the Arkansas river. Under the pro- 
posed amendment it would be in the power of the appraisers 
to put an exorbitant price on the land available for imme- 
diate settlement, while the other portion of the land might 
be estimated as comparatively worthless. Thus ten million 
dollars ($10,000,000) would be filched from the people by a 
corporation, and the equitable and just features of the gen- 
eral land policy of the country completely destroyed. 

I desire to urge upon your honorable body, therefore, the 
justice of amending the treaty now pending, so that either 
the United States or the State of Kansas should become the 
purchaser of said Osage Indian Lands, and in any case 
immediately opening the same to settlement at one dollar 
AND TWENTY-FIVE CENTS ($1.25) per acre, as well as reserving 
for the schools of Kansas the lands that they will other- 
wise be deprived of. At the rate of emigration now 
pouring into that section of Kansas, with the settlers 
already upon these lands, they will within three years 
be occupied by a thriving and industrious population, 



B D 1.4 B 



,oni> 



11 

enricliing the State and the Union, helping to bear and lessen 
the burdens of taxation, and yen,Y by year increasing their 
own and the national wealth ; instead of, as will be the case 
if this iniquitous treaty is ratified, nominally enriching the 
coffers of a railroad company, but in reality the pocket of 
one. man, its president, Mr. William Sturgis, of Chicago — 
not one mile of whose road will ever pass through the great 
body of land it is proposed to cede in this way. 

There are many other objectionable features in this most 
remarkable treaty, which upon critical examination will at 
once attract the attention of Senators. 

SIDNEY CLARKE. 






't^ 



c 
















^'= ■ %.A^ ' :Mi: "^^ -/' ••-'^■■^'•'•' 










'^*' ^ ^^ -^"^ . -.^^^Z .^^-^ ^^, 



A 



A. 



<'. 




'o V'' 



-s 



0* 







^ 



>-„^'. °o 





■a? -^ 





4 9^ 



-3^ '^-c^ "o'^yj;:-/\N-' A'^ "^^ ^^11^* <^ ^. o v '..' vr 



.* .y ^ ^^VV^V >^' ^ %!^ 








'b v'' 



. 









. D0EB5BR0S. , •>-^: Vv'- '^r^ ^ *>rt^^^% ^ J.'^ **<^^ik' ^^ C^ 



^"'^^. 






